Florida football recruiting: Top-100 QB Austin Simmons commits to Gators, kicks off 2025 class with bang

Football

0

Image Credit: GatorsFB / Twitter

With the departure of Anthony Richardson, the erosion of their quarterback room and arrival of Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz, it’s fair to say the Florida Gators have taken a significant step back at the most important position on the field entering the 2023 season. But while that may be the case, the future for head coach Billy Napier’s squad got even brighter Tuesday when four-star 2025 quarterback Austin Simmons (Pahokee, FL) committed to the Gators.

Simmons gives Florida a top-flight signal caller in each of its upcoming recruiting classes joining five-star 2024 DJ Lagway (Willis, TX) as potential program leaders. Lagway has emerged as a primary recruiter for the Gators’ Class of 2024, and the hope is achieving an early commitment from Simmons will lead to a similar result for the Class of 2025. He is certainly portraying a desire to share that same role.

Simmons (6-foot-3, 180 pounds) committed to Florida over Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Texas A&M and other programs after visiting the the Gators twice in March.

Like Lagway, he is a two-sport athlete who also hopes to play collegiate baseball for head coach Kevin O’Sullivan. That might be a blessing in disguise for Florida as Simmons could perhaps be satiated with baseball while he waits and develops behind Lagway.

Simmons is ranked No. 56 overall in the 247Sports Composite as the sixth-ranked quarterback in the country. As he is Florida’s only commitment, the program opens ranked No. 6 in the 247Sports Composite team rankings.

The Gators currently sit No. 11 in the team rankings for 2024, largely due to only having five commitments at this time. Lagway (No. 21 overall, No. 3 quarterback) leads three top-40 commitments. Florida’s average player rating for 2024 is third nationally behind only Georgia and Alabama.